Alcala Restaurant

Recommends

MelinD

Joined 5 years ago

Great food and wine list. Great food and wine list. A waitstaff that is friendly and genuine with their interest in wines and cheese. A non crowded feel that really lets you enjoy your company and surroundings, regardless of if its full or not. Prices that are very reasonable considering what you get. These things all combined together really provide for a fantastic 5+ star experience. You owe it to yourself and your friends to go there.

Recommends

rc333

Joined 5 years ago

quiet dining and attentive staff. plus food from the Basque/Northern region of Spain. the menu has diversity and most dishes are quite good but don't expect a big menu. I find the staff to be very welcoming and their back garden (although it's under a pavilion so you don't see the sky) is open mostly year round. During the week it tends to be less crowded and is a very nice retreat for quiet dinner.

Doesn't Recommend

jgm2000

Joined 7 years ago

bad service, paella was more like a soup with rice than a real one. extremely bad service, i would say rude. The smallest endives that i have ever seen with a cheese that taste more like a dressing salad than real cabrales. The paella was a soup with rice.......... written by someone with spanish (Galicia) roots........ the manager (i would say the only spanish waiter) was rude, arrogant.....

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Basque cuisine draws locals to this cozy spot near the United Nations.. The Scene
Exposed brick walls crossed with sturdy wood beams set a cozy, rustic tone in the smallish front room--out back, there's a lighter garden area. The restaurant is surprisingly busy, given the slightly obscure location, with the odd U.N. diplomat sprinkled among the mostly neighborhood crowd. Service is informative and quietly attentive.

The Food
This was New York's first Basque restaurant, and the solid, unadventurous food is pitched very close to mainstream Spanish cuisine. It's best sampled via the lengthy tapas menu--lamb, for example, is tasty and succulent in the form of chuletitas tapas, but rather heavy as a main course. Elsewhere, there's Serrano ham, soft red piquillo peppers stuffed with cod and juicy chorizos.

Recommends

hothen

Joined 10 years ago

Everything's Tasty. My first visit here definitely impressed. Everything that we tasted on the menu was great, particularly the shrimp tapas (if you don't order it yourself, the waiter will surely recommend it). Trust the staff on the wine selection - the bottle's are a bit pricey but definitely worth it. Basque food may work in all seasons, but wait for warm weather before going to Marichu - the heating's atrocious and the place literally freezes everytime someone goes in or out.

Recommends

maria_jesus_garcia_priet

Joined 10 years ago

Gracias, Miguel. Thanks a lot, Miguel, for making us feel like if we were back in Basque Country!

Great Basque restaurant (we know what we are talking about.. we are Basque people), but above all, GREAT service!

We will come back every time we go to New York and of course, we will tell everybody about it!

Eskerrik asko denorik!!!

Recommends

kerstinsonja

Joined 11 years ago

Not impressed.... A Spanish restaurant where the waiters don't speak Spanish? That's not what I call authentic... The ambiance in this tiny restaurant is cozyand the wine list great. We were not impressed by the food and, being from Spain, highly question its authenticity. It's a nice place, but there's better...

Recommends

kingofnyc79

Joined 11 years ago

Amazing Food, Good Service. I don't think I have been anywhere else other than Bask country itself that serves food this authentic (and good). Everyone should check it out, and definitely try the regional delicacy, chipirones. In addition the waiter suggested a great wine (since we didn't know much about Spanish wines) and all of the service was great. Oh, and try and sit out back if you can.